“Nobody Wants to Be Phone Hacked”: Highlights From Prince Harry’s Second Day of Cross-Examination

Prince Harry arrives to give evidence at the Mirror Group Phone hacking trial at the Rolls Building at High Court on Wednesday. Prince Harry is one of several claimants in a lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers related to allegations of unlawful information gathering in previous decades. Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage

Prince Harry was back in the witness box at the High Court in London on Wednesday for a second day of grilling over his allegations that British tabloids targeted him with phone-hacking and other unlawful behaviour.

Harry and others are suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publisher of the Daily Mirror and other tabloids, accusing them of widespread unlawful activities. MGN is contesting the claims and denies senior figures were aware of wrongdoing.

Below are quotes and highlights from the courtroom where Harry is facing hours of cross-examination in the witness box over two days:

 

Phone-Hacking on Industrial Scale

 

“If the court were to find that you were never hacked by any MGN journalist, would you be relieved or would you be disappointed?” MGN lawyer Andrew Green asked Harry.

“That would be speculating,” Harry said. “I believe phone-hacking was on an industrial scale across at least three of the papers at the time and that is beyond doubt and to have a decision against me and any other people that come behind me with their claims given that Mirror Group have accepted hacking … yes, I would feel some injustice.”

Green suggested that Harry wanted “to have been phone hacked”, to which the prince replied: “Nobody wants to be phone hacked.”

 

Absence of Call Data

 

Green again asked Harry about the absence of call data suggesting MGN journalists listened to his voicemails, contrasting it with the amount of call data provided in his separate lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper arm News Group Newspapers.

He asked Harry if he accepted that “the absence of call data to your phone is at least suggestive that you were not hacked by Mirror Group”, to which Harry replied: “Absolutely not.”

Harry also said that he thought “burner phones” were used to intercept voicemails and that call data had been “destroyed.”

 

Incredibly Disturbing

 

Harry told the court that a story about him attending a nightclub after breaking up with his girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, was “incredibly disturbing.”

He also said that the article with the headline “Hooray Harry Dumped,” published in 2007, was “celebrating” the end of his relationship — which Green firmly denied.

“‘Hooray Harry Dumped’ was hurtful to say the least,” Harry said. “That such a private moment was turned into a bit of a laugh and the fact that these payments (to private investigators) were referred to as ‘Project Harry‘ is incredibly disturbing.

“The level of surveillance that I was under was quite something.”

Green replied that the article quoted a friend of Harry‘s girlfriend as saying “she just got tired of his hooray lifestyle,” adding: “It’s not celebrating the demise of your relationship.”

 

Royal Source

 

Harry said that any quotes or information in articles about him which were attributed to a “royal source” made him suspicious about how the information was obtained.

In reference to a 2008 article about him not being allowed to return to combat in Afghanistan, Harry said: “It is suspicious that so much is attributed to a royal source.”

Harry was also asked why he had not sued other newspapers which published similar information to that contained in articles about him by MGN.

“I’m quite busy with other litigation, my lord,” Harry replied with a smile.

 

Destruction of Evidence

 

Harry also alleged there had been “industrial-scale destruction of evidence on all sides” after being repeatedly pressed about what evidence he had to support his claims.

Green said Harry‘s claim covered the period between 1996 and 2010, asking: “Is it your case that your phone was consistently being hacked?”

“I wouldn’t know,” said Harry.

Green asked: “Are you claiming damages on the basis that your phone was being hacked on a daily basis?”

“It could’ve been happening on a daily basis, I simply don’t know.”

 

Public Interest Stories

 

Harry was earlier asked about what type of story about him he would consider to be in the public interest, after he said on Tuesday that “there is a difference between public interest and what interests the public”, in relation to an article about him allegedly taking drugs as a teenager.

Green asked him about the article again, to which Harry said the article was not in the public interest. “I don’t believe it affected the wellbeing of society,” he said.

Asked by Green what stories about Harry the prince would consider legitimate public interest, Harry initially declined to answer, saying he would be speculating, before replying when pressed: “A life-threatening injury. I’m sure there are others.”

(Reporting by Michael Holden, Sam Tobin and Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Kate Holton)

 

June 6, 2023

Prince Harry Rips Into Press for “Utterly Vile” Behaviour as He Gives Evidence in British Tabloid Lawsuit

 

Photo: Anadolu Agency

 

Prince Harry began giving evidence on Tuesday at the High Court in London in his lawsuit against the publisher of British tabloid the Daily Mirror, which he accuses of phone-hacking and other unlawful acts.

Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, has previously admitted its titles were involved in phone-hacking, but said there was no evidence that Harry had ever been a victim.

Below are quotes and highlights from the courtroom where Harry is due to face hours of cross-examination in the witness box on Tuesday and Wednesday:

 

State of Press and Government at Rock Bottom

 

“On a national level as, at the moment, our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government — both of which I believe are at rock bottom,” Harry said in a written witness statement.

“Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them so they can ensure the status quo.”

 

“Utterly Vile” Behaviour 

 

“In my experience as a member of the Royal Family, each of us gets cast into a specific role by the tabloid press,” Harry wrote in his written statement.

“It was a downward spiral, whereby the tabloids would constantly try and coax me, a ‘damaged’ young man, into doing something stupid that would make a good story and sell lots of newspapers. Looking back on it now, such behaviour on their part is utterly vile.”

 

Palace Reaction

 

Asked why Buckingham Palace had not complained to the press complaints watchdog about a story if it was untrue, he said: “That would mean, my lord, complaining pretty much every day.”

 

Drug Use

 

Asked whether he believed the voicemails of his father King Charles had been hacked over a story about him taking drugs, Harry said: “Potentially unlawful information gathering, yes.”

Andrew Green, MGN’s lawyer, said that the “unpleasant reality” is that Harry‘s private information was “sometimes provided to the press with the consent of the palace or people within the palace”.

Harry replied: “From certain individuals, yes.”

 

James Hewitt

 

Harry addressed the rumours that his real father was Major James Hewitt, with whom his mother had a relationship.

“They were hurtful, mean and cruel,” he said in the witness statement. “I was always left questioning the motives behind the stories. Were the newspapers keen to put doubt into the minds of the public so I might be ousted from the Royal Family?”

 

Paul Burrell

 

One story reported Harry had sworn about his mother’s former butler Paul Burrell. “That’s a terminology I used when describing Mr Burrell,” Harry said. “I …  believe this could have been lifted directly from a voicemail I had left.”

 

Life Wasted on Paranoia

 

Harry said in his witness statement: “It’s only now, realizing what the defendant’s (MGN’s) journalists were doing, and how they were getting their information, that I can see how much of my life was wasted on this paranoia.

“I’ve always heard people refer to my mother as paranoid, but she wasn’t. She was fearful of what was actually happening to her and now I know that I was the same.”

 

“Total Speculation”

 

Green suggested to Harry that his allegation that an article about him breaking his thumb as a teenager was the result of phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering was “in the realms of total speculation”.

Harry said “that kind of stuff instills a kind of paranoia for a young man at school where he has to go to the medical centre and can’t now trust the doctors.”

 

Blood On Their Hands?

 

Harry was asked about a passage in his statement on the press, in which he said: “How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness?”

Asked if the MGN journalists who wrote the articles at the centre of his lawsuit had “blood on their hands”, he replied: “Some of the editors and journalists that are responsible for causing a lot of pain, upset and in some cases — perhaps inadvertently — death.”

 

Girlfriends

 

“At no point did I have a girlfriend or a relationship with anyone without the tabloids getting involved and ultimately trying to ruin it using whatever unlawful means at their disposal,” Harry wrote in his witness statement.

 

On Piers Morgan

 

“The thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother’s private and sensitive messages (in the same way as they have me) and then having given her a ‘nightmare time’ three months prior to her death in Paris, makes me feel physically sick.”

Morgan, the Mirror‘s former editor and now a high-profile broadcaster, has denied any involvement in unlawful behaviour.

(Reporting by Michael Holden, Sam Tobin and Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Kate Holton)

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